tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post7649680003783730072..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: Concepts, Conceits, And Physical LawsFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-77692684193975070092019-06-08T08:16:15.516-04:002019-06-08T08:16:15.516-04:00"Breakthroughs in the hard sciences are achie..."Breakthroughs in the hard sciences are achieved mostly by young researchers. Such persons are more willing to challenge what “everyone knows” than their elders. The elders serve the cause of scientific advancement by forcing the young upstarts to prove their contentions. I use the word prove not in the mathematical sense of establishing a truth impervious to contradiction, but in the observational sense: the demonstration that some phenomenon does not conform to the “laws of physics” as the elders imagine them."<br /><br />I've argued this in many instances in my own career - not so much, specifically, about OLD vs. YOUNG, but while job searching, that it is people from outside an industry that often bring in new ideas, new practices, and have the benefit of not knowing what can't be done yet.<br /><br />Back in the day when I was job searching I made this point often as I attempted to break into an industry in which I had an interest... to very little effect. I suspect, in part, that TPTB in such companies had vested interests in having said "That can't work" and didn't want to be proven wrong.<br />NITZAKHONhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04110716447757507226noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-88742755592231029052019-06-08T07:48:16.174-04:002019-06-08T07:48:16.174-04:00I dunno Francis. When we violate our observable la...I dunno Francis. When we violate our observable laws and get away with it... we often <br /><br />end up with monsters like atom bombs, genetically modified foods, stem cell controversies - you name it. We’re then stuck with tech and science we may very well not smart enough to be trusted with.<br /><br />I remember as a kid, on Sundays they had an African wild kingdom show. Back then there were still the odd primitive tribes around. The anthropologists of the time nearly wept with rage when they dropped on remote tribes, to find them playing with zippo lighters and other modern gadgets. The thought of something like that going on at galactic distances leaves me conflicted. And what if it worked the other way round: with us being the savages that receive tech toys and trinkets from others that could destroy us in our turn?Glen Filthiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03256741311142364722noreply@blogger.com